Ten months ago, the One Bermuda Alliance was cruising along with 41 percent of the vote in a likely general election, while the governing Progressive Labour Party was lagging with 35 percent, according to The Royal Gazette's MindMaps poll in December, 2011.Then a funny thing happened. The OBA's share of the vote dropped to as low as 36 percent in May, while the PLP's fell to a depressing 29 percent.Just why that happened is hard to know; it may be that weeks of squabbling over the Budget weeks before the May poll led to voters being turned off both parties.What the episode really shows is that the vote in the run-up to the General Election — whenever it is — remains very fluid.So the One Bermuda Alliance, which attained its best ever share of the popular vote with 45 percent in this month's poll, should temper its excitement.But the Progressive Labour Party has little to be excited about either. Although its share of the popular vote rose to 38 percent, its best performance since it attained 44 percent in January 2011, it is still seven percent behind the OBA — the same gap that has existed for the last year.Both parties face the same obstacles to victory. The OBA has effectively captured, or been handed, the white vote. But it polled 23 percent of the black vote, which is not enough to put it over the top.The PLP secured just two percent of the white vote in this poll, down from seven percent in May, and it is pretty clear that it is making essentially no effort to attract the white vote through its campaign videos, or through its veiled and not so veiled statements about the white establishment allegedly pulling the strings of the OBA.If that in fact is the strategy, it seems to be working since the PLP polled more than 50 percent of the black vote in this poll.But the OBA has still not articulated a message that shows it understands the black experience in Bermuda and is prepared to tackle the legacy of white dominance and racism.The PLP has a different problem — the economy. As will be clear in a poll result later this week, confidence in the direction of the economy is non-existent, and the public has less confidence in the PLP's ability to bring about economic recovery than it does in the OBA.There's no doubt that the PLP knows this, and it helps to explain its focus on speculating on what the OBA would cut.What is also clear from the polls is that the public is still quite sceptical about the leadership of all parties.Ms Cox's favourability slipped to 31 percent, a far cry from 18 months ago, and her approval ratings were just 25 percent. At the same time 41 percent people view her unfavourably.It's likely that Ms Cox's big problem remains the economy — as Finance Minister in her own administration and under her predecessor, she simply cannot avoid some responsibility for the budget deficit and the recession and still has not elucidated a clear plan for getting Bermuda out of it.OBA leader Craig Cannonier's favourability also remains fairly low at 35 percent, but those who view him unfavourably stands at 27 percent. What this means is that 32 percent of voters are on the fence — the highest number of any leader.Mr Cannonier's problem is lack of visibility; he needs to be seen more, and to be seen leading his party. Too often he defers to his Shadow Ministers and his own message and optimistic personality get lost.The same is true of Ms Cox, to some extent. Although she is more visible, the Government, for all of its criticisms on this point of the OBA, has not said what it is doing to end the recession.In both cases, this explains the high level of disenchantment with political parties signalled by the electorate. It is time for leaders to lead.